The Interview: Does Your Website Make a Good First Impression?

You only get the chance to make one first impression at a job interview, so you may as well make it a good one! Every time someone visits your website, it’s just like being questioned in a job interview; first impressions are everything.

The first few seconds with a website visitor will be the determining factor in what the initial interaction and lasting impression may be. If your website takes longer than 8 seconds to load, you’ve lost the interest and the interview is over. While 8 seconds may be the current threshold, realize dropped traffic begins to exponentially increase at only 2 seconds. You literally have 2 seconds to impact a potential
customer!

If your website doesn’t make a good first impression, there might not be a second chance. However,
there is hope! Discover a few ways you can conquer the first impression:

Get Found!
Getting your site found online can be like trying to get your resume noticed in a stack of
thousands of other resumes. To shoot to the top of the list and stand out, your resume has to look
professional, has to meet the job requirements and has to also be unique. What does your resume
offer that other resumes might not? If your website is not meeting Search Engine Optimization
requirements or doesn’t have unique and compelling content, you may easily be overlooked. Going the
extra mile, like using Pay-Per-Click, Blogging, or Social Media, will help get you noticed.

Be Relevant!
You wouldn’t go into an executive interview armed with stories about your first job as a burger
flipper in high-school, so why would you have old, irrelevant content on your website? Having
compelling content is extremely important because it is your job to entertain, educate and inform your
interviewer. If you are unable to communicate your story or are not offering relevant information, you
will lose your interviewer’s interest. Your website has to tell a story that is relevant, current and has a
purpose.

Be Social!
Compelling conversation is essential during a job interview. Being social allows you to connect
with your interviewers and build personal connections and develop rapport. The same theory applies to
your website. By building rapport with your visitors on your website and through social media tools, like
Twitter and Facebook, you essentially build a network of people who share your company’s information
and recommend you to their connections! In turn, you’re helping your website visitors form a
connection to your company and build a social rapport.

Be Adaptable!
When interviewing, you have to be able to adapt your communication skills to the level of the
interviewer and be ready for any kind of question that gets thrown your way. Your website has to be just
as adaptable when it communicates with your visitors. Tablet users want to interact with a tablet
optimized website while mobile phone users would rather be automatically directed to a mobile specific
website. If your website isn’t adapting to the needs of your visitors, you won’t get called back in for that
second interview!

Be Polite!
Having pop-up requests on your website is like being interrupted while you’re about to say something;
it’s unprofessional, disruptive and rude! We want to gain as much visitor information as possible, but
being subtle and less intrusive will allow you to gain information over time and create a better user
experience for your visitors. Having great call-to-actions and using best practices when building landing
pages, request forms and contact pages will improve user experiences and lower dropped visitors.

Be Helpful!
The worst thing you can say to an interviewer is “I don’t know.” Think of the search feature on
your website as the dialogue between you and your interviewer. When you do not have a search feature
on your website, it is like giving yes or no answers to open ended questions. Or if you have a search
engine that is not built correctly, you may be giving the wrong answers to the questions being asked. Be
helpful by ensuring your site search is formatted correctly and gives the most accurate answers as
possible.

Your website needs to walk into the interview room with good body language- it has to look
professional, make good eye contact, maintain great energy and have the right answers the interviewers
are looking for. User expectations increase all of the time and to keep your website a hot commodity, be
sure your information is relevant. Keep up with industry trends and go the extra mile to ensure the user
experience on your website is as great as possible. Your interview depends on it!